The present invention relates to articles having light emitting fibers or strands and in particular to a shoelace having light emitting strands throughout the lace.
Various articles of clothing have been developed which include light emitting devices such as light bulbs, light emitting diodes, or fiber optics. Some examples of such articles of clothing include jackets, shirts, belts, shoes, and ski boots and are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,652,981; 4,727,603; 4,839,777; 4,935,851; and 5,151,678. Such illuminated devices have been used for at least two purposes. One purpose is to decorate or embellish a particular design fabricated on the article of clothing. The other purpose is to provide a safety indicator on the article to illuminate a person such as a jogger at night or other periods when an object is not easily visible.
Light emitting fibers or strands, such as fiber optic cables, are used to transmit light from a light source along the length of the fiber to be emitted from an end of the fiber. While light emitting fibers have been employed in the past in various articles of clothing as discussed above, their use has not gained wide acceptance probably due to the difficulty in manufacturing such devices and the cost in manufacturing such devices. There remains a need to provide a simple and easy to use illuminatible shoelace device. An illuminatible shoelace device would provide decoration and also function as a safety indicator.